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    Meat · Recipe · Ethiopia · Reference page

    Doro wat

    ዶሮ ወጥ (doro wot)

    Ethiopian chicken stew: onions cooked slowly in spiced butter, then berbere and tomato, then chicken simmered for an hour, finished with whole hard-boiled eggs. This is Marcus Samuelsson's recipe as published by Saveur.

    Fine ink and watercolor illustration of doro wat: three chicken drumsticks and two whole eggs in red-brown onion sauce in a white bowl.
    Editorial illustration of the documented recipe; not a photograph of a kitchen-tested result.
    Servings
    6
    Preparation
    20 min
    Cooking
    2 h 15
    Total
    2 h 35
    Difficulty
    Moderate

    Equipment

    • Heavy 6-litre saucepan with a lid
    Servings6

    Ingredients

    • To serve

    Shopping list

    Method

    1. Heat the spiced butter in the saucepan over a low heat. Add the ginger, onions and garlic and cook, stirring, until very soft, about 30 minutes.

      Why The long, slow onion base is the body of the sauce; Samuelsson was taught to sweat the onions for nearly an hour.

      Timer · 30 min30:00

    2. Add the berbere and tomato and cook, stirring, until reduced and darkened, about 15 minutes.

      Timer · 15 min15:00

    3. Add the water, cardamom and chicken, season with salt and pepper and bring to the boil. Lower the heat to medium-low, cover and cook until the chicken is done, about 1 hour.

      Timer · 1 h60:00

    4. Lift the chicken onto a plate. Boil the sauce until reduced, about 15 minutes. Add the eggs and warm them through.

      Timer · 15 min15:00

    5. Pour the reduced sauce over the chicken and serve with the eggs.

    To drink & serve with

    • Samuelsson serves it with rice or flatbread.

    Substitutions

    • Nit'r qibe → Ghee or melted butter, as the source allows, with a pinch of fenugreek and cardamom.
    • Drumsticks → Mixed thighs and legs, which Samuelsson used in Addis Ababa.

    Common mistakes

    • Rushing the onions over high heat: they burn instead of melting into the sauce.
    • Toasting berbere in very hot fat: the chilli scorches and turns bitter.

    Storage & reheating

    Cool quickly, refrigerate within 2 hours and eat within 2 days; reheat until steaming hot. Eggs reheated in the sauce turn rubbery.

    Safety

    Poultry must be cooked through. Contains milk (butter) and egg.

    Allergens

    Milk · Egg

    Check labels: stock, bacon and sauces can contain further allergens.

    Dietary

    gluten-free

    The holiday stew

    Saveur introduces doro wat as the long-stewed chicken dish without which, in Ethiopia, no holiday meal is complete. The chef Marcus Samuelsson writes that he learnt it from a friend in Addis Ababa, sweating onions in nit'r qibe for nearly an hour before the chicken and berbere went in, and adding boiled eggs just before serving. He now makes it when his wife's sisters come to town.

    [1]

    Onions first, and slowly

    Doro wat is built in layers of time. The onions, ginger and garlic soften in spiced butter for half an hour or more; berbere and tomato cook into them until dark; only then do water and chicken go in. At the end the chicken comes out while the sauce is reduced, so it clings to the meat and coats the whole eggs.

    [1]

    How it connects

    Place

    • origin Ethiopia In preparation

    Recipe

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